CLE 4, TOR 2

I meeeeeean...before the bloodletting literally began, the drone story still wasn't that cute. Doesn't Bauer (not our Bauer, who aside from the neuroses that attend any Mets season-ticket holder seems properly socialized) (...hee) have a history of kind of not "getting it" re: being a big-leaguer? Maybe I'm remember that incorrectly, but I feel like he got dumped by the D-backs for maturity issues.

TBS should get dumped by MLB for nausea issues; we only need maybe one middle-distance shot to get the point. Bauer's uniform pants looked like a fucking Gallagher show. WE GOT IT, CAMERA FOUR.

Of course, those of us counting on Bauer to Hail-Mary us into the money really started to feel dizzy when we realized he became possibly the first BPP pick to leave the hill with negative pitcher points, because the gore compromised his control. What a world.

Speaking of points...this Jays lineup is becoming death from above the last few days. I don't tend to put a ton of stock in momentum but you have to wonder what happened to these hitters between Boston and now.

Napoli 9
Santana -2

Bauer -0.33 (...ffs)

***

Bats 1
Donaldson -2
Encarnacion -3

Osuna 2

Money, full standings after the jump.

LAD 1, CHC 0

Los Angeles evens the series at 1-1 to send it back to Chavez Ravine...and a low-scorer like this, while a pleasure to watch for fans of the game, sent various slates down ravines of their own. Rizzo Seager LLC needs to file for bankruptcy, mang.

Points:

Rizzo -1
Russell -1
Zobrist -1

Hendricks 6.33

***

Seager -3

Kershaw 12

Another fine outing by Double Deuce restores MacEachern to the top spot:

108. 34 MacEach
106.33 Simone 
104.34 Yuhan 2

100s Williams, Stempel

80s Bingham 2 and Shotwell

70s Ekard

60s Shee/Bell

high-50s hopefuls Reid Love, Arbour, Currie, Cameron 1

And everyone else staggering along behind. Nobody with a slate above 70 points picked Rizzo. I'm not saying; I'm just saying. I'm also not saying for sure that Adrian Gonzalez is locking up the Shane Victorino Memorial "THAT Guy?!" Award, but I'm seconding Bean's nomination of him for sure. It's kind of weird; every other year he's been eligible, he's been an extremely popular pick. This year, nada. Shows what we know.

Toronto tries to leverage its SkyThunderDome fans for a hometown win at 8 ET on TBS, Bauer v. Stroman. See you then.

CHC 8, LAD 4

This was a wild one that had baseball Twitter fuming over IBBs and poor ol' "Say It Ain't So" Joe Blan'on getting pwned by a pinch-hitter, and yeah, I guess Roberts made some "dumb" moves, or got the percentages flipped, or whatever you want to say. I wouldn't have played with that kind of fire given this offense, but it could have worked.

What it did do was bring some of the only sincere joy or wonderment I've heard from Buckwad during a baseball game in several years. Like, narrating that Montero mama, he actually sounded like he didn't hate being there/Jack Buck's kid. It was nice.

Too bad Smoltz made "up" for it with incomprehensible attempts to slam "stat guys." FFS, retired players: get over it. And we're not all guys. And shut up.

(Not you, Pete Rose. Your making it awkward by inviting yourself on A-Rod's plane is in my top three things that happened yesterday.)

ANYWAY. Points:

Baez 4
Bryant 4
Rizzo, continuing to goddamn kill us -3
Russell, don't help -4
Zobrist 1

Lester 8

***

Seager -2
Turner 1

Maeda 6 (yep, that includes his lone futile base)

Money/standings after the jump!

CLE 2, TOR 1

This series is shaping up like the pitching-duel-rich matchup you'd expect from the NL series...which you're sort of getting. It just takes twice as long because Roberts never met a pitching change he couldn't overthink, but we'll get to that. In this one, Cleveland stymied the Toronto bats once again.

Well, except for one. Congrats to this games sole-pick holders, who get to jump up the standings unaccompanied

Napoli -2
Santana 6

***

Bats -2 (geh)
Donaldson 3

Happ 8
Osuna 1

Money looks about the same, but Stempel closes the gap some:

Simone 94.33
Williams 93.33
MacEachern 92.34


Yuhan 2 91.34
Stempel 89

But this is all going to get shuffled up with Cub/Dodger points; next update should see Yuhan 2 back in the lead. Stand by!

CLE 2, TOR 0

How very postseason pool of Marco Estrada to throw a CG when nobody picked him...and lose on two runs.

Fun game to watch; National League levels of tension, without all the PH futzing.

Points!

Napoli -1
Santana 1

Kluber 10.33

***

Bats -3, because gah
Donaldson 2
Encarnacion 2

New leader! Standings after the jump.

LAD 4, WSH 3; Dodgers advance (!)

Pretty much. (Can someone find me that Brian Kenny STOP BUNTING shirt, though? Or maybe I should just use the same graphic and print my own with CAN'T STOP WON'T STOP.) I mean, did anyone even know Kershaw had teeth?

I do feel bad for Nats fans, to the extent that someone who had to put up with Murphy losing ground balls in the sun in the infield for however many years (and...not hitting like that even remotely until 2015) can feel bad for them. Cubs fans, meanwhile, should be delighted. They can piranha this series and let the bones sink to the bottom in five games tops. 

A few slates will have to do that as well. First, last night's points.

Seager -2

JuTu 5

Hill 6.67

Kershaw (!) 1.67

***

Harper 0

Murphy -1

TreTu 0

Scherzie 9 (6 IP, 7 K, 2 BB; 2 LOB)

And those four are out. Are <em>you</em> out? Standings and recalibrashe, after the jump.

CHC 6, SF 5; Cubs advance

I feel a little silly not having expected exactly this outcome, but of COURSE the Giant bullpen cracked. I suppose the only real surprise is that the series went to a fourth game.

The points:

Baez 3
Bryant 1
Rizzo 1
Russell -1
Zobrist 1

***

Belt -4
Pence 1
Posey 1

And we lose those three plus Bumgarner, Cueto, and the injured Pagan.

Full standings after the jump.